DePauw University severs ties with sorority
I've been following this story, as I am an alumni of Delta Zeta (although not this particular chapter). It's very sad actually. One of the reasons that I was drawn to DZ in college was because of the diversity in my house. On a campus where most of the sororities were stacked full young women of the same cookie-cutter image and little academic focus, I found DZ to be very refreshing. Several of my (then) soon-to-be sisters were involved in very complicated degrees and had high academic standards. Of course, not everyone in the house was like that, but I think that's what made it so interesting. We had all kinds of girls with different interests, personalities, and looks. I think it made us much stronger.
All along, DZ headquarters have said that the events at DePauw were a mischaracterization. And that may be. But, I've also been in groups of girls all throughout my life where are certain idea takes over and people go along. I don't know whether that's what happened in this case, but I wouldn't say that it was out of the realm of possibility. And if it were true, that doesn't necessarily say anything specific about DZ, but rather more of something about human nature b/c group mentality can be hard to overcome sometimes. On my campus, there were sororities that were very stringent about looks, weight, etc. of the girls in the house. I was very happy that our sorority was not that way.
In any case, the events at one house on one campus don't speak to what the organization is as a whole. So, hopefully it won't affect the other DZ chapters, since I think that it is a good organization and has committed itself to a good philanthropy (speech and hearing sciences). And there are many alumni who I believe would agree with me.
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2 comments:
What's "speach?"
You can get kicked out of a house for not recruiting?
"Speach" is how I spell speech when I'm obviously too busy or tired to be writing a blog post :)
Part of being in a sorority or fraternity is being dedicated to ongoing recruitment activities. There is always formal rush during the fall to recruit new members, but many houses do an ongoing informal rush to get people to join throughout the year. I don't know if it's necessarily something you get kicked out for not doing, but it would definitely be a problem for a member to refuse to do it at all. I imagine that there would be several things attempted before kicking someone out, however. Depends on the house, school, etc. rules
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